In honor of tomorrow, we’ve got a Valentine’s Day fundraiser idea for your youth group to organize. But first of all – an apology.
It would probably have been much more useful for me to have written this weeks ago, so that if you thought it was a great youth fundraiser you’d have time to plan it.
However, I’m a guy. And we’re talking Valentine’s Day. I therefore didn’t give much thought to it until a couple of days beforehand (sorry wifey!) Still, if you’re coming across this post in future years after searching for a Valentine’s Day fundraiser, you’ve come across it at just the right time. So I think that lets me off the hook. Maybe.
Today’s youth fundraiser idea is to organize a Valentine’s Day Flower Fundraiser. Here are some ideas on how to do this:
1) Procure
Contact florists or flower wholesalers in advance and find out how much it would cost to buy flowers in bulk. Consider different types of flowers – obviously roses will be needed, but gerbera daisies, pink lilies and others could be good additional options. The florist will be able to give suggestions as to which types of flowers are popular on Valentine’s Day.
2) Price
To make money from this Valentine’s Day fundraiser, you’ll need to mark up the prices you’re quoted from the florist/wholesaler. Try not to price the flowers so high that the cost is prohibitive for people, but bear in mind that a) people are willing to pay more for flowers on Valentine’s Day and b) they might also be willing to pay a little extra given that it’s a youth fundraiser.
3) Placing orders
Put together an order form for people to complete in order to support your Valentine’s Day fundraiser. The form should include:
- Flower bouquet options & prices (along with a check box for them to indicate which they want)
- Who flowers are from (unless they wish it to be anonymous)
- Who flowers are for
- A message to go with the flowers
- Address to be delivered to (if you’re offering this additional service), as well as what time range they should be delivered
- Contact number in case of any problems
- Payment options
4) Payment
To encourage as many orders as possible, try to accept as many payment methods as possible. Cash and checks would likely be easy to accept, but it’s now easy for youth groups to accept credit card payments as well.
5) Promote
There are many ways to do this:
- Get in touch with your local newspaper and see if they’ll run a story about the Valentine’s Day fundraiser. Provide details of who they should contact if they want to buy flowers to support your youth group.
- Hand out flyers
- Get your youth to spread the word at school
- If your youth group is run through a church, have the Valentine’s Day fundraiser mentioned in a service
- Ask anyone you know to take flyers into their workplace
- Use Facebook, Twitter, etc
6) Purchase
Florists and flower wholesalers will require payment when you pick up the flowers, so make sure you have the cash with you, checks have been cashed, etc.
7) Provide
If you’re not offering to deliver the flowers, contact the buyers to let them know that their bouquets are ready to be picked up and where they should be picked up from.
Maximize your fundraising by:
- Selling other Valentine’s Day related goodies like chocolates, teddy bears, etc
- Offering to deliver the flowers for a fee – florists often charge $10-$30 for delivery, so you could either charge a similar amount or undercut them to encourage more sales
- Ordering extra flowers to sell on the day – find a location with a lot of foot traffic on Valentine’s Day to sell flowers (e.g. outside Hallmark, train stations, parking lots, etc). Make up signs so people know it’s a youth fundraiser, but make sure you get the appropriate permissions to sell there
If you’ve found this helpful, you may also like our other ideas for youth group fundraisers. If you want a different type of youth group Valentine’s Day activity, why not organize a scavenger hunt – there are instructions and a free list here.
Question: Are there any extra things you’d do for a Valentine’s Day fundraiser? Have you done anything similar to this? Let us know in the comments below.
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